1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ESD protection device to protect a semiconductor device, etc. from electrostatic discharge (ESD) failures, and a method for manufacturing such an ESD protection device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, for the use of commercial-off-the-shelf appliances, there has been a tendency to increase the frequency of inserting and removing cables as input-output interfaces, and consequently, static electricity is likely to be applied to input-output connector areas. In addition, miniaturization in design with an increase in signal frequency has made it difficult to create paths, and LSI itself has been highly sensitive to static electricity.
Therefore, ESD protection devices have been used widely for protecting semiconductor devices such as LSI from electrostatic discharge (ESD).
As this type of ESD protection device, an overvoltage protection element has been proposed which is connected between a first electrode and a second electrode, and includes a porous structure formed by carrying out a firing treatment with the use of an overvoltage protection element material including a non-conductive powder (silicon carbide powder), a metallic conductor powder (Cu powder), and an adhesive (glass).
However, in the case of this overvoltage protection element, the addition of the adhesive (glass) is essential, and there is thus a possibility that the following problems will be caused.
There is a tendency for variation in product characteristics to be increased due to defective dispersion of the glass, and it is difficult to provide high-reliability products.
There is also a tendency for short circuit resistance to be degraded when ESD is applied repeatedly, due to defective dispersion of the glass.